Nov 5 2021 - McDonald's vs My World

 

I've been in a world of my own that excluded McDonald's my entire life.  In fact, I could say we are worlds apart.  But somehow McDonald's has popped up as a topic.  It turns out I now have the best of both worlds with all these crazy stories about McDonalds.  So today is a short trip through the mashed.com archives of McDonalds rumours, stories, and false facts, and true lies. What made McDonald's get rid of Ronald McDonald? McDonald's announced its mascot Ronald McDonald would be taking a hiatus in 2016. It followed a disturbing craze which saw pranksters jump out at people dressed as spooky clowns. Some wielded weapons to spread terror and the trend travelled across the globe.  This doesn't mean that Ronald McDonald has been 100 percent erased from the brand - Ronald McDonald represents the Golden Arches at least one day out of the year - Thanksgiving and his appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Remember the hot coffee lawsuit that put a "fast" million dollars in Stella Liebeck's hands.   "But the reality is actually quite different. Stella Liebeck, the plaintiff in Liebeck vs. McDonald's Restaurants, was not driving, nor was she a scammer. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a stopped car when she attempted to remove the lid off of a cup of coffee she had just ordered. The cup slipped, spilling scalding coffee (around 190 degrees Fahrenheit!) all over her, causing third-degree burns on her lap, buttocks, and genital area. Lieback was hospitalized for eight days, during which she had skin grafts and debridement treatments. She was permanently disfigured as a result of the accident.  Initially she only asked McDonald's for $90,000, but McDonald's countered with a paltry $800, so Liebeck rightfully sued. In the end, she was awarded an undisclosed amount (under $600,000) for her pain and suffering." There is a famous story that their french fries are only one ingredient. "McDonald's sells approximately nine million pounds of french fries every day at its locations all over the world. But contrary to popular belief, McDonald's  fries are not a one-ingredient wonder. And while spuds are the main ingredient, there are actually a total of 19 ingredients in their fries, including vegetable oil (comprised of canola, corn, soybean, and hydrogenated soybean oils, as well as milk- and wheat-derived natural beef flavoring), dextrose (for that golden, yellow color), sodium acid pyrophosphate (to prevent color changes when frozen), citric acid (for freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane (to reduce foaming), and salt (for flavor)." There are dozens of stories about the various rumours of beef and chicken ingredients, many are rumours or false facts about pink slime ingredients, non-dairy milkshakes, non-beef burgers and various strange tales.  Find many of them HERE.   Here's a view across Lake Ontario from Beamsville.  There's a McDonald's in Beamsville with a very tall sign that one can see while driving along the QEW.

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Oct 22 2020 - More Along Moyer Road

 

I went through the photo archives yesterday looking for more pictures of Moyer Road.  It is on the lower escarpment, and starts at Victoria Ave in Vineland, runs west and then ends at a bend that turns south and becomes Spence Road which itself ends at Fly Road in Camden.  I find this conclusion disappointing. Fly Road is a  rural highway - one of the regional roads where everyone is driving very fast to get somewhere.  Along Moyer Road is Vineland Estates Winery and restaurant, Mark Picone, notable chef's residence and culinary studio on the road.  Crossing over it is the Bruce Trail, which as you know goes on and on until it gets to Tobermory. It has beautiful views north to Toronto across the Lake, and then to the west to Megalomaniac Winery on the top of the escarpment edge. This is a good place for both the hawks flying overhead during migration and the Hamilton Lancaster bomber which flies quite low over the escarpment here during its tourist summertime flights.   I seem to pick Autumn for pictures on Moyer Road, perhaps its most colourful and scenic time of year. Here are two Autumn leaves jokes for us today: What do you call a large colorful pile of leaves? The Great Barrier Leaf. Did you hear about the tree that had to take time off of work in autumn? It was on paid leaf.

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Sep 30 2020 - How Clean?

My car is wonderfully clean inside. It got me to thinking about our passion for cleanliness and neatness.  Have we always had this orientation?  I assume that we've always had some orientation to hygiene, but we know that's not the case.   What about neatness?  There has been a growing trend in the last 10 years about tidying up, reducing clutter, and living a simpler life.  There's a magazine for this:  Real Simple.   Perhaps the trend is growing because of our messy internet. I can appreciate this after yesterday's look through the chaos of meme websites - cluttered visually, verbally explosive and hectically flashing things. Tidiness is now associated with 'calm respite' with symmetry and order.  This has turned into a personal practice, described by Sarah Hampton as "knolling". That's the term some artists use to describe the ritual of organizing and arranging their tools in specific order and configurations, like a surgeon's instruments in an operating room, before they start their work. Some of the inspiration for the blog Things Organized Neatly came from this practice.    If we want to analyze neatness at a broad historical level there is  Neatness: Webster's Timeline History, 1535 - 2005 Paperback – Aug. 17 2010 is a most interesting book - it is one of its bibliographic and event-based timeliness - comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Neatness," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Neatness in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Neatness when it is used in proper noun form. I found this joke that is really long, perhaps that is what makes it seem so  funny. A man wants a pet A man wants a pet. So he visits his local pet shop and inquires .  Man: “I want an obedient pet. One that would do anything I ask of it no matter what”.  The store clerk: “I know exactly what you need”. The clerk steps out back for a few minutes and returns with a tiny box containing a centipede.  Man: “A centipede, really?”  Clerk: “Yes, trust me”  Man: “Sold!” The man takes his new pet back home and immediately starts giving orders. Man: “I am going to go cook in the kitchen. I would like you to clean this entire living room. Make it spic and span.” After the man finished cooking and eating, he returns to his living in the most well-kept state it has ever been. Dusting, organizing, and everything in between was taken care of. He is amazed.  Man: “Okay, that was really cool. Now I want you to do the same for the kitchen”   After relaxing on the couch, he checks on the kitchen to find it in a perfect state of cleanliness as well. He just couldn’t believe how amazing this centipede was. One Sunday morning, he tasks the centipede to go out and get the newspaper. The centipede steps outside to fetch it. 10 minutes go by... 30 minutes... 1 hour... Impatient and confused, the man steps outside to see the centipede still at the front of the door with no newspaper Man: “Where’s my newspaper?! It’s been an hour!!” Centipede: “I AM STILL PUTTING MY SHOES ON!!!” Here's the view from the Beamer Park on the escarpment.  This is from a few years ago. We're looking to the east, so the distant ridge is likely Port Dalhousie.

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The Second Day of Christmas - One Day Only!

This is the second day of Christmastide.  We know that the boxes of Boxing Day originated in the United Kingdom and were given to tradespeople and servants as a monetary acknowledgement at Christmas - they were mentioned as "Christmas boxes" in Samuel Pepys' diary in 1663. References to the "Christmas box" for the poor and needy date back to the Middle Ages.   And even earlier, in the late Roman and early Christian era, metal boxes were placed outside churches at the Feast of Saint Stephen. Today it is as though there is a north pole and a south pole for Boxing Day - the shopping and sports frenzy of the greedy and hedonistic opposing the charities raising money for their causes. So it is no surprise that our charitable organizations have Boxing Day events: Today and every year, you can run for the YMCA in Hamilton.  Race day pickup and registration opens at noon.  Or one can go on a Charity Boxing Day Dip - and then again on New Year's Day for that one.  In Scarborough Harbour there's a raft race. That's Scarborough, U.K. On the hedonistic side, the British press reports record line-ups showing pictures of people leaving shopping malls with their arms full - at 6:00am.  The U.K. article said 90% reductions were the attraction. And for the sports-minded, in Grimsby, U.K.  there's an important announcement that supporters in the Main Stand will be asked to exit the stadium via the Pontoon Stand exit von Boxing Day.  A big sports day there. We didn't ask the question "What do the Chinese do at Christmas?" There are 1.379 billion people in China.  First of all to say "Merry Christmas" the translation turns out to be "Holy-birth happy."  The top three Chinese Christmas songs: We Wish You a Merry Christmas Silent Night Jingle Bells Read the translations at chinahighlights.com - they stray from the originals making them very entertaining.  How they sing them to the melodies with know is a mystery. We see the Niagara Escarpment forest at Campbellville on Christmas Day.  It really was that dark and blue-black.

Denomination and Denominator

Denomination and Denominator.  It seems like these two words would be related, and yet one definition is about religious groups and currency.  The other is about dividing in mathematics/arithmetic, shared traits and average levels.  And then denominate is about giving a name to something.  There must be a history site for word origins, so let me know if you are aware of one.  Today we're looking at the brilliant foliage in a pear orchard at the top of Mountain Street in Grimsby.

Views of Niagara

I was at a garden meeting at the Toronto Botanical Gardens yesterday and took some time to visit the Aga Khan Museum and Garden.  I wanted to see the Autumn colours as this is a key feature of the plant choices.  There was a some colour, but the leaves have been blown off the trees so there was less than I'd hoped for. This is such an astonishing building and garden.  With the infinity water pools, the white walls of the building, and the grand walk ways, everything is harmonized and serene. Coming back to Niagara, we drove around the escarpment and took a view of Niagara Falls from Megalomaniac the Winery.  Remember the posting last week  'The Great Toronto Mirage'?  Yesterday's view of Toronto was very clear and the buildings on the landscape extend from Toronto right through to Hamilton in a continuous line. At Megalomaniac, I was able to get a good picture of the Niagara Falls view, and include a cropped view so you can see the 'thumb print' stubby building in the centre.  It is Brock University in St. Catharines, and then Niagara Falls is beyond that.  The Skyline Tower is the telling shape of Niagara Falls. There are no articles (other than camera lens compression) to explain this compression phenomenon that we saw. Storms were ahead for the Niagara Falls area.  Voting is ahead for us today.

View From Above

I went out to see the Autumn colours yesterday.  I started at Beamer Park up on the escarpment.  The park is an example of a preserved Carolinian forest here in Ontario, and has excellent views out across the region.  The view in this picture is towards Niagara Falls, and one can see its high rises. The winds have been blowing the colours off the trees so there isn't the show that one might like for photographs.  And as the winds blew and blew, a storm blew in. The last picture is at Locust Lane, where the Hidden Bench barn is located, and looks out over the Lake. While the Lake is in this picture, there's no Toronto floating on the horizon today. Dezi and I arrived home just in time for the rain to start.

Megalomanic Fun

It looks like fun at the Megalomaniac Winery.  It is perched on the escarpment with views of Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Port Dalhousie, Toronto, and Hamilton.  That's quite the panoramic view.  And it has quite the personality to go with it.  The wine has names like Bigmouth and Vainglorious.  Tables and chairs are sculptures made of wood, and the winery is full of young people.  Our visit include a party of girls in hats. The owner is John Howard and the location is in Vineland at 3930 Cherry Ave.

Niagara's Snow Blossom Trail

Yesterday's snow day in Niagara was spectacular.  The trees on the escarpment were completely covered in snow, revealing magical patterns and structures.  It was a warm day here with little wind, so the snow stayed in these lovely patterns all through the morning. 

This orchard is at the top of the escarpment on the Road to Beamer Park.  It's the Hawk Park where the annual hawk migration count takes place. From Beamer one can easily see all across Lake Ontario with Toronto the central jewel.  

You will likely see these trees again.  This is the first time I saw them - they have a bonsai sensibility.  There's the big thick trunk of an old tree.  THen, the shape is a perfect fan with branches evenly spaced and fanning out with great symmetry.  They reveal themselves  as orchard trees - with the little branches sticking straight up.  These 'whips' will likely be gone before winter is finished.

WIth the snow caught in the branches, the structures became clearly defined.  I thought they had the appearance of snow blossoms, so I did a pink version.  I guess this would be the winter blossom trail.